11 Plus Exams Forum

As the title says.. Is handsworth a safe area for girls. It appears to be quite notorious. I am concerned about the public trasport to and from school for our DD.

The only place I have ever been mugged is in Sutton Coldfield and the only place I have felt very threatened by racial abuse was Solihull town centre.... I guess we can only conclude that, sadly, no area can ever be completely safe.

Nevertheless Handsworth, as you are clearly aware, does not have a very salubrious reputation.

If your daughter is to attend KE Handsworth, then I wouldn't imagine she would actually be walking around Handsworth completely alone.
If walking to, and standing by the bus stop, for example, I can only presume that there'll be at least half a dozen - if not dozens - of girls with her. Which would obviously make the chances of any trouble pretty remote.

The only issue I would be worried about is if she stays very late at school for clubs, and ends up being the only girl walking home/waiting for the bus without any others.

And there's been plenty of trouble round the 11C bus stop outside CH recently; nowhere is immune to antisocial behaviour.

mike1880 wrote:And there's been plenty of trouble round the 11C bus stop outside CH recently; nowhere is immune to antisocial behaviour.

Yes, I do worry more about ds1 coming home from chb rather than dd1 coming home from KEVIHS. Muggings and fist fights...no where is 'safe'.

Dd1 does get the Green Bus. But there have been a few times where she has had to take public transport and thankfully, it's been quite safe. A number of her friends also use public transport and there hasn't been any problems.

When she is involved with after school activities, then usually, I do pick her up via car. There's 2 entrances. A back entrance on Hall Rd which is convenient for parking as a number of girls and dps wait there. But if it's dark, I ask her to wait at the main entrance and collect her from there.

um wrote:The only place I have ever been mugged is in Sutton Coldfield and the only place I have felt very threatened by racial abuse was Solihull town centre.... I guess we can only conclude that, sadly, no area can ever be completely safe.

Nevertheless Handsworth, as you are clearly aware, does not have a very salubrious reputation.

If your daughter is to attend KE Handsworth, then I wouldn't imagine she would actually be walking around Handsworth completely alone.
If walking to, and standing by the bus stop, for example, I can only presume that there'll be at least half a dozen - if not dozens - of girls with her. Which would obviously make the chances of any trouble pretty remote.

The only issue I would be worried about is if she stays very late at school for clubs, and ends up being the only girl walking home/waiting for the bus without any others.

Thanks. It looks like bit more research reqd. on our part. Any idea about safe areas to live and easy to commute via green bus for handsworth?

mike1880 wrote:And there's been plenty of trouble round the 11C bus stop outside CH recently; nowhere is immune to antisocial behaviour.

For some reason, it still feels a safer area compared to handsworth... And its a funny thing to say as I have never been to handsworth area.. I have only seen kings heath area.

DIY Mum wrote:

mike1880 wrote:And there's been plenty of trouble round the 11C bus stop outside CH recently; nowhere is immune to antisocial behaviour.

Yes, I do worry more about ds1 coming home from chb rather than dd1 coming home from KEVIHS. Muggings and fist fights...no where is 'safe'.

Dd1 does get the Green Bus. But there have been a few times where she has had to take public transport and thankfully, it's been quite safe. A number of her friends also use public transport and there hasn't been any problems.

When she is involved with after school activities, then usually, I do pick her up via car. There's 2 entrances. A back entrance on Hall Rd which is convenient for parking as a number of girls and dps wait there. But if it's dark, I ask her to wait at the main entrance and collect her from there.

Someone told me its not all that bad if you use green bus and if your daughter is part of a larger group.. Still it doesn't fill you with any confidence really.. Does it.. ?

We know a girl who currently attends Handsworth and uses the Green Bus. Her parents were very sceptical about sending her there but it is the best choice they have made (I spoke to the mother on Friday as we are considering Aston and in a similar predicament)
The Green Bus is safe and drops and collects from the school. It has swayed our views on the school.
Im sure there are many areas that we can be vunerable in. Just a case of advising the children to stick together and have their wits about them.......

first time mum wrote:We know a girl who currently attends Handsworth and uses the Green Bus. Her parents were very sceptical about sending her there but it is the best choice they have made (I spoke to the mother on Friday as we are considering Aston and in a similar predicament)
The Green Bus is safe and drops and collects from the school. It has swayed our views on the school.
Im sure there are many areas that we can be vunerable in. Just a case of advising the children to stick together and have their wits about them.......

Thanks. Thats a very useful to know.. I hoping for more people to contribute with their input.. It would really help us out.

My daughter commutes to KEVIHS on a local bus. She stays downstairs rather than go up on the top deck. It's very busy and some folk can look a little strange. But she's travelling at 8am and about 4pm and I've not felt that it's unsafe at all.

A friend from her year (and a sixth form sister) travel with her, and a bunch of other girls from her school, and there's even a teacher who takes that route. Mainly the bus is full of school kids. It seemed like a massive thing to contemplate when she was only in Year 5, but she's stepped up to the responsibility really well. The first few days she was on the phone to me most of the way and she often calls from her stop in the afternoons (sometimes to beg me to fetch her - cheeky monkey!). But so far there's been no trouble at all and she's been very responsible. Apart from leaving her jumper on the bus...

It's surprising how much they mature once they start Year 7. And Handsworth is no more dodgy than where we live - I wouldn't advise travelling there late at night, but nearly all the KEVIHS clubs are at lunchtime rather than after school, so there's no issue about late evenings.